Scrap Work of Art – How to Make a Tin Can Toys
By: Noel N. Villarosa
People who are born with artistic talent can spot a probable art out from scrap that was disposed of. Roaming the street while walking or jogging is where a greater chance of finding the would-be art to build and to enhance. The scrap we trampled every day could be our diversion from being idle into being ingenious.
Every day people used to consume different kinds of drinks: bottled or canned drinks, but there is one thing you could not ignore, these things aside from the refreshing feelings we get from drinking it, but also the designs that come along with the container.
The easy to mold tin can is a conceivable material. It can easily cut into desired shapes and sizes. The canned drinks have many colorful designs that you can classify according to its color to have a uniform background as its design. We can design any toy out of tin can. Preparing the following materials will help us to build the desired design:
- Tin can
- Tin snips (to cut sheet metal)
- Gloves (to protect your hands when working with raw cut edges)
- Cutter (to start a small cut to allow scissors’ pointed blade make the starting point cut)
- Super glue or Steel Epoxy
The canned drinks like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mirinda and many others would splice to form a great artwork. You can visualize the body parts of a toy car.
Preparing the wheels. The bottom part of a tin can will be cut--you need two tin cans to be able to collect two bottom parts--what you need to do is to overlap the two bottom parts to create its wheels--so for this, you need to have 8 tin cans to create 4 wheels.
Preparing the axle shaft. The leftover from the cut-out tin can that we used in making wheels will be used as the axle shaft. We will cut again to the middle to stretch it, and cut a smooth edge on every corner. Fold it in horizontal circular shape to make an axle shaft (you need to join its end by using super glue and to maintain its circular shape). Then for each end, try to cut a petal form and flatten it to stick in the middle of the wheels by using a super glue (press it, up to 10 seconds to stick hardly). You do not need to fix the other end of the wheels until you insert the part of the axle inside the rivet ring of the tin can, which you are going to use as the steering knuckle.
Preparing steering knuckle. You need to have a suspension component to hang the axle shaft at the chassis of the toy car so the wheels will move freely. What you need to do is fix a two ring-pull tab (from the canned drink) at the chassis of the car--to fix this, you need to cut a two separate small opening (maybe 2 inches apart) to fit the ring-pull tab (use super glue to stick it inside the cut). Leave the rivet ring to expose and push inside the axle shaft. This time you have to fix the other wheels like what you did with the first wheel attached to the axle shaft.
Molding the car body. Have a picture of your model car that you would like to copy. Cut the desired shape of the body and piece by piece connect it to form the desired design of the body, you can use the super glue to stick the pieces, and do whatever jazzing up you want to put into your car is not impossible.
The piece of artwork that you will create from this tin can is worthy of admiration and wonder, as the artistry is done with strict patience and dedication. This is also a unique gift to give your child before he succumbed to the electronic gadgets.
